


what if we rewrite the stars?

by more1weasley



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Fix-It: s06e13 The Wedding of River Song, F/M, the rest is a surprise, time can be rewritten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22884013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/more1weasley/pseuds/more1weasley
Summary: alternate title: love is a promise._“She has always been there for you, Doctor. Looking out for you, one way or another. Keeping you safe, blowing leaves… She made you a promise, didn’t she?”
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Comments: 31
Kudos: 260





	what if we rewrite the stars?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dhruvi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dhruvi/gifts), [LizRambler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizRambler/gifts).



> Please ignore any canon inaccuracy and assume I did it on purpose; i might also have messed with the timelines a tiny bit. I tried to puzzle it out, but River's timeline is headache inducing, so just go along with it. 
> 
> Any mistakes are my own.
> 
> I want to profusely thank Dhruvi and LizRambler for all the help and support, you guys are absolutely fantastic. And you know what?  
> ...

> _"What if we rewrite the stars?_  
>  _Say you were made to be mine_  
>  _Nothing could keep us apart_  
>  _You'd be the one I was meant to find_  
>  _It's up to you, and it's up to me_  
>  _No one can say what we get to be_  
>  _So why don't we rewrite the stars?_  
>  _Maybe the world could be ours_  
>  _Tonight."_
> 
> **\- Rewrite the Stars, The Greatest Showman.**

“Whatever happened to ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’?”

Everyone froze at the unexpected voice, the Doctor most of all.

Rory had his gun trained on the strange blonde woman a second later, purely on instinct. Her hair was wild, with waves and tiny braids randomly spread out. Her clothes looked more like rags patched together. There were weird specks of gold in her hazel eyes and her smile was predatory. The three of them stood there, gaping at her.

“Who the hell are you?” Amy recovered first, her Scottish accent coming out strong as she demanded an answer.

River pulled out her gun next, a scowl on her face. “How did you get up here?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “And crashing a wedding, _my_ wedding,” River tsked, clicking her tongue, “big mistake, sweetie.”

The woman wasn’t alarmed by the weapons pointed at her. In fact, she barely even gave them a glance. Her eyes were fixed on the still frozen Doctor. He hadn’t moved an inch, he wasn’t even breathing.

“He knows. Don’t you, Doctor?” The woman asked, drawling the ‘Doc’ and then the ‘tor,’ her head tilting slightly to the side.

The Time Lord didn’t answer he just closed his eyes tightly, as if hoping she would go away if he wished hard enough.

“Doctor?” Amy called, gaze shifting quickly from her paralyzed best friend to the stranger.

“Sweetie, what’s wrong?” River kept her eyes and gun trained on the woman, but took a step closer to her soon-to-be-husband. “Who is she?”

“You forgot about me,” the woman pouted, but the amused glint in her eyes let them all know she wasn’t really hurt.

“Shut up,” the Doctor spat out loudly, finally taking a deep breath and turning towards her, taking in the weird outfit.

The woman straightened, like a puppet abruptly being pulled up. “You did, though. Well, no, of course you didn’t, but you’d like to, wouldn’t you?”

“Ma’am, I’ll have to ask you to put your hands in the air.” Rory interrupted, but no one even glanced at him.

“Except you did forget about me, didn’t you? Or you will, you will forget about me. You have forgotten about me… Twice now, I think…” the woman frowned. “Tenses are difficult, aren’t they? Past, present, future… All the other ones that come in between…”

“Doctor, who is she?” River asked again, her voice strained through her clenched jaw. The man in question ignored her. His stare was firmly fixed on the blonde, scrutinizing her from head to toe with narrowed eyes.

“Who are you? Because you’re not her, I know that much. So who are you?” He took a step closer, towering a little over her even as he leaned in to look her in the eyes.

The woman smirked. “You clever boy.” Then she shrugged, as nonchalant as ever, taking a step around him towards the beacon in the middle of the rough circle they all had formed, almost skipping through the roof. “I’m just a bit.”

“A bit what?” The Doctor turned with her, keeping track of the guns that followed her with the corner of his eyes.

“Just a little,” she shrugged again, ignoring Amy’s indignant “Oi!” as she reached to turn the beacon – the one asking the universe to help the Doctor – off.

“A little _what_?” He ground out through clenched teeth.

“What do you think you’re doing?” River shouted, outraged.

The blonde ignored River and turned to face the Doctor again, answering just as her eyes glowed golden for a moment. “Time.”

“No! No, no, no, no, you can’t be...”

“I’m not.”

“What’s wrong with her eyes?” Amy gasped.

“But you just said…” The Doctor frowned.

“But I didn’t.”

“What’s going on?” Rory asked Amy from the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, Doctor! Care to share with the class?” Amy crossed her arms, asking in a way that was very much not asking and more like ordering. Much to her surprise, she continued to be ignored.

“Alright, that’s enough! I’ll ask you one more time: Who. Are. You?” The pause that followed was long enough for the Doctor to start glowering. “Whatever sick game you think you’re playing, it stops _now_. Don’t you _ever_ think you can play games with me and win, especially not like this,” he glared pointedly at her appearance. “So you tell me, once and for all you tell me, who are you?” The last question came in a shout straight into the wild young woman’s face.

She didn’t even flinch. She had started smiling halfway though his tirade and now wore a big, fat cat-that-got-the-canary grin.

“You’re adorable, did you know that?”

The Doctor spluttered, offended and shocked all at once. He settled on furious as his eyes darkened. He glared at her with the heat of a thousand suns.

“I _swear_ , if you think for a moment–“

“Ha, funny.”

“for a minute, even for a single second, that using that face to get to me is in anyway a good idea– ”

“Oh, I know, I know,” the blonde interrupted again, an eager smile on her face, “this is a very,” she deepened her voice, “‘that name keeps me fighting’ moment.”

“I… You… How…?” The Doctor spluttered some more, before mumbling with a disgruntled expression. “I don’t sound like that!”

“Well, not anymore, you don’t. But really? I’ve told you this.” The woman frowned, looking put out for the first time since she appeared. Then her brow smoothed and she clicked her tongue. “Or I _will_ tell you this. Always get those two mixed up.”

The sentence seemed to ring a bell for the Doctor, because he brightened suddenly, drawing himself up straight. “Are you the TARDIS? My TARDIS?” He took an excited step towards her, before turning to Amy and Not-Exactly-Rory, “She talked like that, Idris. Remember?”

“The TARDIS…” The woman said, drawling the ‘TAR’ and hissing the ‘DIS’ through her teeth. “No, I’m afraid not.”

The Doctor’s shoulders slumped, and he was back at glaring at the strange creature wearing Ro-, _her_ face. Because it was _her_ face… Her beautiful face... The first and last face his last face saw. The face this face was born missing, the face _these_ eyes had no hope of ever seeing, and yet there she was, but not.

It was her face, but not her hair, not her clothes, not her smell, not her accent, and it most certainly was not her watching him from behind those whiskey colored eyes with flecks of gold.

The Doctor glowered at her while his fists clenched and unclenched both in anger and also to stop himself from reaching for her hand. All the while, she just looked amused.

So she wasn’t the TARDIS, and – if he understood her correctly – she wasn’t Rose as Bad Wolf either. He frowned, brain working at full capacity, which was saying a lot, Time Lord brain and all. The corner of his lips turned up just a bit. She smiled as she watched him, and he straightened his bowtie, getting back on track. She said she was a bit, a little… _Time_.

Her smile widened into a full blown grin, as if she knew the answer was just on the tip of his tongue.

“Look,” River stepped in, literally, as she put herself in between the staring contest that had been going on, “whoever you are, we don’t have time for this. The Doctor is going to die unless we stop it, and we can’t afford to waste hours we don’t have on this little puzzle of yours.” She had her back to the Doctor, staring the unconcerned blonde down, or at least trying to.

“Oh, I don’t need hours,” the blonde drawled out, walking around River and the beacon until she and the Doctor were face to face again, “I just need… a _Moment_.” She drawled out the ‘om’ and then clicked her tongue on the ‘ent,’ watching as the Doctor’s eyes widened.

Time seemed to stand still. Well, more than it already was.

Rory, Amy and River could only watch, confused, as the word made the Time Lord freeze again; realization and dread dawning on his increasingly pale face. He took a step back from the blonde. “No! No, you can’t be. You’re not,” he looked her up and down. “You’re a box. Besides, those events are time locked, you can’t…” he trailed off and didn’t seem to be able to keep going.

“Someone must have told you that the Moment had a consciousness. I chose this form especially for you.” She did a little twirl, smiling wolfishly at him. “As for the time lock, well,” she sauntered around a bit, the look of pure nonchalance. “That’s relative.”

“Locked is locked.”

“Unless you have a key. Three, to be precise. Three very important events happened that day, well, four if you count the War itself, but I like three.” She stared off into the distance, as if reminiscing for a bit, before spinning on her heels to look at the three humans and one Time Lord. “Good number, three. Lucky. Three events, three Doctors. Oh, good times, those. The Power of Three, ha!” She laughed at something only she knew before focusing on the frowning Doctor once more. Her smile became a smirk. “Someone had to help Dalek Caan.”

“You helped a _Dalek_?” Amy burst out, thankful that something finally made sense to her. The Doctor didn’t seem the least bit concerned about the Dalek part, still staring at the woman in horror.

“Well, not me-me,” she murmured, tilted her head, narrowing one eye in thought. Before she could elaborate, the Doctor interrupted.

“I don’t remember you,” he said, pointing a finger up and down her form in accusation. “I remember a box, and a big, red button,” he frowned, “a rose shaped button, but still…”

“I told you, didn’t I? You forgot about me,” she fake pouted again, and then grinned. “How did you put it? Oh, yes, it’s all very wibbly-wobbly.”

“Timey-wimey,” he continued, mumbling to himself, then snapped back to attention. “But- but I still don’t understand! How- Why are you here?” The Doctor stuttered.

“Ah, that. I’m just doing a favor for a friend.”

“You’re a mass destruction, Galaxy Eater weapon, you don’t have friends,” he scoffed. She didn’t seem to hear him, or care; instead, she turned to _his_ friends.

“The Doctor is not going to die,” she said, seemingly out of nowhere. A stunned silence followed her abrupt words before River recovered.

“Of course not,”

“Oi!” The Doctor huffed, annoyed at being ignored. _Since when_ _the Moment had friends? What friends?_

Unperturbed, neither River nor the blonde paid him any mind.

“Because we’ll stop it,” the curly haired woman continued. She didn’t understand who, or what, this woman was, but she had put enough pieces of the puzzle together to get a glimpse of the image.

“Oh, but he was never going to die in the first place.”

“But we saw it! We saw him die, it’s a fixed point,” Amy pointed out, stepping up beside her daughter which was rather hypocritical coming from her, seeing as the Ponds were ready to let time, and the universe, be destroyed just to save the Doctor.

“Please,” the Moment snorted. “Bad Wolf could see everything that ever was, is or ever could be. Do you honestly think she’d let something like the Doctor’s death be a fixed point with no loophole?” She turned to him then. The horror had washed from the Doctor’s face, but not the shock. “No, she needed this,” she gestured at the frozen world around them, “to happen, so I could come and give the Doctor my message. Clever girl, our Bad Wolf! I quite like her.”

“I’m sorry, I’m confused. Who’s Bad Wolf?” Rory asked, gun long since forgotten. Again, he went unanswered.

“What message?” The Doctor asked, eager and apprehensive all at once.

“Reason or not, it’s still a fixed point. He is going to die unless we find this loophole.”

“I’ve told you,” the Time Lord said, turning to River, “I’ve got a plan.”

“Rule number one, sweetie,” she gave him a sad smile.

“Oh, you won’t have to worry about that. Soon enough, he won’t be the one always wandering off.”

River, Amy and the Doctor frowned, for different reasons. The women had no idea what wandering off had to do with it; the Time Lord was quite tired of the riddle-speak. It was only ever fun when he did it.

“What is the message?” He asked again, locking eyes with the Moment.

The blonde paused, a deliberate dramatic pause, then a slow smile started to turn the corners of her mouth into a very predatory smile.

“Time can be rewritten,” she said, as if imparting a great secret, and flashed them an accomplished grin.

The other four openly gaped at her and her proud expression.

“You… You…” The Doctor couldn’t seem to find the words. “You came all this way, planned this whole thing, crossed time and space, just- just to, just to tell me time can be rewritten?” He finally stuttered out.

“It. Is. A. Fixed. Point,” Amy nearly shouted, her face starting to match her hair. “Loophole or not,”

“Oh, I’m not talking about his death,” the Moment cut her off, locking eyes with the Doctor. She could hear as his thoughts took him to a million different directions before replaying their entire conversation again and again. She could pin point the exact moment he realized it.

“Oh, thank God, I don’t have to marry River!”

Amy gasped, outraged. “Oi!”

Even Rory seemed a bit offended, though probably not as much as he would’ve been if he actually remembered being married and having a daughter.

The Doctor turned away from his fiery friend and saw the hurt look on River’s face. _Blimey, was he being rude again?_

“Yes, and still not ginger,” the Moment answered offhandedly, and he nodded along.

“Right. Sorry, didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

“Doctor!”

“Nor that.” He was fumbling with his hands now, looking between the very cross Amy, to the very hurt River, and to the mildly annoyed Rory. “Sorry, really. Honestly. But I told you,” he turned back to his friend’s daughter, who had her eyes open wide with shock and pain, clearly holding back tears, “I didn’t want to marry you. I like you, River, I do, but not like that.”

They were all silent for a minute. Amy had moved closer to her daughter and was holding her hand tightly, while the Doctor and the Moment stared at them with sad eyes.

Something made a noise on the supposed-to-be-frozen street bellow, and then stopped. Time was running out. Literally. The Moment opened her mouth to speak when something seemed to click for the Doctor.

“Wait! Hold on! I was being rude, and you agreed,” he pointed a finger at her. The blonde only raised a single dark eyebrow, as if asking ‘your point?’ so he continued, “I didn’t say _that_ out loud, so how could you know what I-”

“I can hear you,” she cut him off, tapping her right temple with a finger. “All of you, jangling around in that dusty, old head of yours,” the Moment drawled and then drew her shoulders back, spine straight. “Oh, that’s good! Might use that again.”

The Time Lord looked offended, but before he could protest, Amy stepped in.

“Never mind that! You delivered your message, so you can go now,” she growled out, arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

“No, no!” The Doctor yelled, taking a couple of hurried steps forward. “You can’t go yet. Explain- Why, why would she- Why would Bad Wolf do this?”

The Moment’s eyes narrowed as she studied the man’s apprehensive face. “Why? Are you afraid of The Big Bad Wolf, Doctor?” Her eyes glowed golden again, before returning to their original hue.

“No! Of course not. I just…” and his eyes looked so sad all of the sudden, even Amy pushed her anger aside long enough to be concerned for her best friend. “She’s gone, what does she care?” He asked voice low and a bit helpless, or hopeless, or maybe both.

The blonde’s eyes softened and she gave him a gentle smile. “Is she?”

“What?” He stared, mouth open in disbelief, eyes wide.

“You know,” she drawled, skipping around the rooftop, everyone following her with their eyes, “this rewriting time thing would’ve been so much easier way back on Big Bang Two.” She seemed to reflect on this for a second while staring at the dark sky, then shrugged. “Oh, well, guess our girl had her reasons.”

“Wait! Wait a minute, are you saying- You can’t be saying…” The Doctor was desperate now, shaking his head and focusing on her with wild eyes. He grabbed the Moment by the shoulders, forcing her to turn and look at him.

“Oh, the signs have been there all along. She was more subtle this time around though, supposed you wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Signs? What signs? Tell me!” He screamed in her face.

“Magpie electronics,” the Moment freed herself from his grip, which had slacked as he lost himself in memories. She wandered around the roof again. “World War Two, ‘give me someone I like,’” she quoted, and threw a glance at the Doctor. He seemed a bit overwhelmed, but he had asked. “Why do you think the Minotaur wanted you? ‘If I believe in one thing, just one thing’, that’s what you said, isn’t it?” She didn’t wait for an answer before continuing. “The oldest story in the universe, yearning for each other across time and space, across dimensions… The Rose and The Crow…” she trailed off, frowning. “No, wait, sorry, those last two haven’t happened yet. What is it you say?” She asked River, then turned back to the Doctor and tapped her lips with a finger, “Spoilers.”

When no one said anything, too shocked or confused to comment, she continued, “Kazran said it, Doctor: ‘one last day with your beloved, which day would you choose?’ Well, New Year’s Day, I suppose.” The Moment hummed a bit, glancing from the humans to the Time Lord, all of whom didn’t seem to have anything to say. “She has always been there for you, Doctor. Looking out for you, one way or another. Keeping you safe, blowing leaves… She made you a promise, didn’t she?”

He was completely and utterly speechless; for the first time in a long time, he didn’t have a single thing to say. His superior brain had just stopped. The Doctor could do nothing but stare at the face of the woman he–

“‘She this, she that,’ who is _she_?” Amy demanded, sneering a bit, entirely fed up with all of it. “You never mentioned a ‘she,’” she pointed an accusatory finger at the Time Lord. This was supposed to be her daughter’s wedding day and the day they saved the Doctor. Instead it had turned into an episode of This Is Your Life: Time Lord Edition.

No one answered her and Amy’s face turned into a violent shade of red. Before she could yell and strangle the answer out of him, the Doctor found his words. “Where is she?” It came out low and, in fact, a bit strangled. He was half hoping the Moment hadn’t heard the question because if she didn’t hear it, she couldn’t give him a disappointing answer.

“Now, that would be just too easy, wouldn’t it?” The blonde clicked her tongue. “The girl spent a year jumping through dimensions looking for you, surely now it’s the Storm’s turn to chase the Wolf.”

The Doctor looked like he might protest vehemently, but acknowledged her point with a shake of his head and distant eyes, brain already going through all the places and times he should look first.

The world around them lurched back into life as time finally unfroze and proceeded to run out again.

“Well, it looks like my time is up. River,” the Moment approached the curly haired woman, but Amy stepped in front of her daughter before she could reach her.

“You stay away from her!” The ginger growled out.

Unfazed, the blonde sidestepped Amy and stopped before River. “I’m sorry, I truly am, but you deserve to not have your life revolve around the Doctor. You deserve better than what those people from The Silence wanted for you.”

“I don’t want to kill him,” River whispered, eyes dry, voice watery and breaking.

“Oh, Melody,” the Moment looked the other woman in the eyes, smiling her softest smile. “Trust me, you won’t.” The women stared at each other for a moment before River nodded, determination coloring her features. The blonde’s smile widened.

“Good. Now, I just need one more thing from you,” once Melody nodded again in agreement, the Moment continued, “Your timeline and the Doctor’s run in reverse. I’m sure you know what that means. There will come a day when he doesn’t know you, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“You can’t tell her that!” The Doctor rushed forward, but a glare from both women stopped him in his tracks.

The Moment turned back to River.

“When the time comes, and I’m sure you’ll know when, I need you to tell him something,” she stepped closer, leaning in, “two words,” she whispered in Melody’s ear and then pulled back, locking eyes with River again.

“Two words. Got it.”

“Good.” The blonde smiled, and sprang back, turning to look at all of them. “Well, then. Guess this is goodbye…” she winked at the Doctor, “for now.” Before he could start stuttering again, she continued, “Now, this is going to be a bit tricky. Time will compensate for most changes and the old timeline will feel more like a dream. You’ll only remember it clearly if you really focus on it. Most things will still be the same, the Doctor and River should take the worst of it. Sorry about that,” she winced in sympathy, “can’t be helped.”

“Right. Of course, time travelers, eye of the storm and all that. But what about my… you know?” He raised both eyebrows meaningfully. If the Moment hadn’t been telepathically connected to his thoughts, she would have no idea what he was talking about. Thankfully, she knew. River wouldn’t be his wife anymore, so she would never know his name and wouldn’t be able to tell it to him at The Library.

“Just a dream, one she can’t quite remember, not even if she focuses on it.”

“Right. Good. That’s good,” his hands fumbled some more and his eyes were now drinking her in like a man dying of thirst.

Lighting cracked and a howl sounded, too loud to be coming from the street bellow.

“What was that?” Rory asked, looking over the roof’s edge.

“It’s nothing. It’s just a wolf.” In the next crack of light, the Moment was gone.

The Ponds looked on as the Doctor’s shoulders slumped forward and his eyes filled with pain and longing as he stared at the place where the blonde woman had been. In the next minute, his mask fell into place and he clapped his hands, turning on his heels to face his companions. “Right then! Time is dying and I’ve got things to do, people to see, the usual. So let’s get a move on, shall we? River! If you’ll give me the honor,” the Doctor extended his hand to her. River watched it warily, before raising her eyes to his. The hurt there reminded him of Martha, _and blimey, hadn’t today been enough of a trip down memory lane?_

“Wait, Doctor. Aren’t you going to explain-” Amy started. The Doctor cut her off with a finger to her lips, his eyes never leaving the curly haired woman.

“No time, Pond. River?”

“You better not die,” she threatened, hesitantly raising her hand to his.

“Promise,” he glanced at his glorious Pond and her Roman – not so roman at the moment, but oh well, “I swear, on fish fingers and custard.”

Amy smiled, just as River’s hand made contact with his. Within seconds, they were back at Lake Silencio. After waving ‘hello’ to River through his duplicate’s eye and then dematerializing away in the TARDIS, the Doctor floated in the vortex. He’d need to lay low for awhile now, let the remaining Silence truly believe he was gone until they stopped looking. He leaned against the console and sighed. He was eager to go over everything, the events of the day and his new altered memories, but first he had a pit stop to make.

The Doctor put on a cloak, pulled the hood over his head and grabbed the box with Dorium Maldovar's head inside. He put the box back where he had found it, with the door open like the head demanded. Just as he was leaving, Dorium's voice stopped him.

“Is it you? It is, isn't it? It _is_ , I can sense it!” Dorium's eyes were wide in surprise. “But how- how did you do it? How could you have possibly escaped?”

In a fast movement, the Doctor threw the cloak off his shoulders and turned on his heels to face Dorium, a little smile playing on the corner of his lips.

“The Teselecta, a Doctor in a Doctor suit! Time said I had to be on that beach, so I dressed for the occasion, barely got singed in that boat,” he bragged.

“So you're gonna do this, let them all think you're dead?” The blue head asked.

“It's the only way they can all forget me. I got too big, Dorium, too noisy. It's time to step back into the shadows.”

“And Doctor Song? In prison, for all of her days...” Dorium smirked; he clearly didn't get the memo.

“Yes, yes, well... River has her vortex manipulator, she'll be fine.”

“What, no date nights?”

“Didn't you hear? I'm a single man once again... For now, anyway.”

Dorium frowned, but soon let it go with a raise of his nonexistent eyebrows. “So many secrets, Doctor. I'll help you keep them, of course.”

“Well, you're not exactly going anywhere, are you?” The Doctor took a step back, ready to be on his way.

“But you're a fool, nonetheless,” the blue head continued, unfazed. “It's all still waiting for you: the Fields of Trenzalore, the Fall of the Eleventh and The Question.”

“Goodbye, Dorium,” the Doctor said, giving him a mock salute before he turned and walked away.

“The first question,” Dorium said to his back. “The question that must never be answered, hidden in plain sight!” The Doctor didn't stop, he kept going on his way back to the TARDIS; he had more important things to do, after all. Still, he couldn't help but listen as Dorium called after him. “The question you've been running from all your life. Doctor Who? Doctor Who?”

Back on the TARDIS, the Doctor took her back to the vortex. Dorium was right about one thing though: all his life, he had been running. Most of the time _from_ things, but sometimes he ran _towards_ things, and in that moment there was someone very important he wanted to run to. He pushed Dorium’s words out his mind; he'd have plenty of time to dwell on that later.

Instead, he focused on the day’s events playing in a loop in the back of his mind. The rest of it was focused on the changes that occurred with time being rewritten. He could feel it. All his time senses on high alert. In any other occasion, this would’ve been a code mauve, knowing someone had messed with his very long, very complicated timeline. Not this time. He closed his eyes to focus better on his altered memories.

* * *

He remembered the first time he met her. There she was, River Song, archeologist, getting under his skin with her knowing smirk and even more knowing, sad eyes, in a shadow infested library. They still bickered like a married couple, but when the time came for River to make sure the Doctor knew he could trust her, things diverged wildly from the original timeline.

“I knew this day was coming,” she had said, pained, “the day you wouldn’t know me. I was told to tell you something, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” the Doctor stared at her, dark brown eyes intense and brows furrowed. River leaned in closer to his ear and whispered two words, just two. “Bad Wolf.”

The Doctor had taken a wide step back, staring at her with wide, hopeful eyes. “Who told you to say that?” He demanded.

River ignored him.

“Are we good?”

In turn, he ignored her. “Where did you hear those words? Who told you to say that? Why? Why those words, tell me!” He fired the questions off in quick succession, stepping forward and towering over her, desperate for an answer. River was unfazed.

“You know I can’t tell you that. Doctor, are we good?”

He sighed, unhappy and frustrated, but resigned. “Yeah, we’re good.”

“Good.”

The Doctor had been a little kinder to her after that, not as hostile as the first time around. And when River sacrificed herself, her speech had been a little different; they had still gone to Darillium, apparently and he couldn’t help but notice how the way she said it suggested they hadn’t been alone. He had still cried and given her a sonic screwdriver. When he said time could be rewritten, she had laughed, tears running down her cheeks.

“Yeah,” she had agreed, a little smile on the corner of her lips, “but only for the really important things.” She continued before he could protest, “Don’t worry though, for you, this is just the beginning. We’ll have some good times, Doctor. And we’ll run, you just watch us run.” And she was gone.

Afterwards, the Doctor had felt extremely tempted to take a peek at her blue journal. The mention of Bad Wolf, along with the ‘she is returning’ warning he had received, ringing in his head. He hadn’t, but his hearts had filled with hope nonetheless. Some of that hope died when he left Rose and his metacrisis back on Pete's World, but not all of it.

Their second meeting, at the fall of the Byzantium, had stayed mostly the same. River flirted and said ‘Spoilers’, the Doctor still spluttered and waved his hands around. He noticed how she looked around the TARDIS when he first caught her, as if expecting someone else to be there.

She still knew how to pilot the TARDIS, much to his confusion. After all, there was no reason for him to suspect that she was his future wife this time around, and he would never have even dreamt of her being a child of the TARDIS. Amy still speculated though, and a little feeling of dread formed in the pit of his stomach. Somehow, he fitted a reference to Little Red Riding Hood into the conversation, and the sudden tension in River’s shoulders gave her away. Whatever it was she already knew about Bad Wolf, she wasn’t sharing and the Doctor let it go. Bad Wolf was still in his future somewhere, so he still had hope.

“You always dance at weddings.” River had said, after Big Bang Two. This time, the urge to peek at her journal had been even stronger, so he was glad she had finally showed up.

“River, are you married?” He had asked.

“Are you asking?”

He said yes. She said yes.

He was still left confused, but this time more amused than anything.

 _All in all,_ he thought _, River would get the worst of it._ Most of her life would be rewritten, but his meetings with her stayed mostly the same, except he didn’t flirt back nearly as much. The Doctor was still waiting for Bad Wolf, but then time had passed, and The Silence kidnapped Amy and after the whole thing was over, he reminded himself of a bunker in Utah where a girl from the Estates had called him out.

_“What the hell are you turning into?”_

He stopped waiting after that. He didn’t deserve to have her back.

After he dropped Amy and Rory off at their new house with their new car and the TARDIS blue door, time went by faster, and they became his longest living companions – well, relatively speaking.

Years passed, decades, a century or two, he wasn’t sure – time travel and all. He had all but forgotten about the possibility of Bad Wolf. Not entirely, of course, he could never. It was always there, in the back of his mind.

Time came for him to face his death, and that’s when his memories got a bit wobbly, as they’re wont to do around a rewrite of time. This was where things were clearest, two distinct timelines. The one he had just lived through completely bewildered and blindsided by the Moment’s message. And the one he had in his head, like a self-fabricated memory. Like when you’re told something you did when you were a child, and even though you don’t actually remember, you still form a memory around the things people have told you about it. He had still acted mostly the same, except in this second timeline he had barely contained the hope bursting through his hearts.

* * *

And, for him, that’s where it stopped. Everything from now on was brand new, both timelines realigning into one. Opening his eyes, the Doctor strode off into the TARDIS, trailing a path he hadn’t trailed in a very long time, not since his last body.

The room was the same. It had been the only room to survived House, other than his own room. The dark cherry wood door with the golden rose engraved on it stood open so he could see the unmade bed, the clothes thrown on the floor and the makeup still on the vanity. There were countless pictures of Jackie, Mickey, Jack and him with blue eyes and brown. Alien knick knacks she had collected were scattered over the dresser. There was a pair of his old sandshoes by the foot of the bed and one of his old, boring, totally not-cool, ties hung over the lamp on the bedside table.

Next to the lamp were two photographs: the first was him, all big ears and leather, smiling down at Rose. The second was one of Pinstripes and Rose at Christmas, still with their paper crowns. Both of them were beaming at Jackie – she had insisted on taking a picture, of course she had. For the first time in centuries, the Doctor let himself wonder what Rose Tyler would think of this new him, of his new clothes, and new hair, and new, big chin. _Oh, blimey, what would she think of his new screwdriver, and the new TARDIS, and fish fingers and custard? And bow ties! What would Rose think of his very cool bow tie?_

In the back of his head, damn his superior Time Lord brain, he knew he should be worrying about other things, like how she had gotten back? Why was she back? What had happened to his metacrisis? How long had it been for her? If she was looking for him like last time, how long would she be staying? Did she hate him for leaving her…

Right. Well. No use to dwell on all of that right now. There was only one person who could answer all of his questions. All he had to do was find her.

Closing the door to Rose’s room behind him, the Doctor sprinted back to the console room and started to press buttons and pull levers. All he had to do was find one Rose Tyler through all of time and space.

_How hard could it be?_

Pulling one last lever, and grinning up at the moving time rotor, the Doctor shouted as the lights in the TARDIS seemed to brighten.

“Geronimo!”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if it got a little confusing, I'll be glad to clarify any doubts.  
> I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated!  
> You can also find me on tumblr at @hey-there-juliet :)


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